Message from the Chair, Lewis L. Lanier, Ph.D.

The Department of Microbiology and Immunology is the home department for the multidisciplinary UCSF Immunology Program and Microbial Pathogenesis Program. Research in the department focuses on areas related to infectious diseases, immunology, and cancer. There are twenty-one full-time faculty members in the Department, including 1989 Nobel Prize winner, J. Michael Bishop, who served as UCSF’s Chancellor, and Frank McCormick, Prior Director of the Helen Diller Family UCSF Comprehensive Cancer Center.

A central mission of the department is teaching of Microbiology and Immunology to professional students in the Schools of Medicine, Pharmacy, and Dentistry and to graduate students pursuing their Ph.D. degree. Our department also provides advanced research training to more than one hundred Postdoctoral Fellows. Graduate students working towards their Ph.D. degree are enrolled in the Herbert W. Boyer Program in Biological Sciences (PIBS) or the Biomedical Sciences (BMS) Graduate Programs, depending on their research emphasis.

The research laboratories of the Department are located at both of the main UCSF campuses, Parnassus Heights and Mission Bay and their activities span a wide range of modern biomedical science. Further information can be found in the links to each faculty member listed.

The fields of Microbiology and Immunology encompass many aspects of human health and a goal of our research is to further the basic understanding of microbes and the immune system, as well as translate this knowledge into improvement of human health. Therefore, our educational curriculum provides the opportunity to learn about fundamental mechanisms of microbiology and immunology, as well as the clinical aspects of these disciplines.

For information about admission to our Graduate Programs, please refer to the resources listed below. For inquires about Postdoctoral Research training opportunities, please directly contact the faculty members in our Department.